Looting on Tchoupitoulas Street

Looting in New Orleans was so widespread Wednesday that police were forced to prioritize their overwhelmed enforcement effort.

Winn-Dixie's Riverside Market Place on Tchoupitoulas Street was breached in the morning by foragers who broke through a metal security door. Eight police officers in marked cruisers made it to the parking lot by noon, but they had a more pressing problem than people walking off with food and liquor.

The officers were rushing to a break-in next door at the Sports Authority, desperate to secure the store's stockpile of guns and ammunition.

"I think we ran them off before they got any of it, " said the commanding officer at the scene. The cops secured the store with heavy plywood before moving on to other emergencies.

At about 2 p.m., the officers rushed back to disrupt a second break-in at the sporting goods store. An officer in a squad car tried to chase a Bell South utility truck that fled the scene, but he lost the truck amid fallen trees.

Upon surveying the thefts, the officer said the most conspicuous missing items were all the weapons from the store's knife case.

Before boarding up again, the officers took some essential supplies for themselves: socks, T-shirts and Power Bars. As officers were pounding the last nails the commander yelled: "Let's roll it, someone's driving around in a mail truck."